Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians. Does the minister agree with the following statement from a member of the government's Voice Referendum Working Group?

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume her seat.

The member for La Trobe is definitely out of order interjecting. I'm trying to hear a question. I've got the member for Petrie and the minister having a conversation, which I can hear from here! I'm going to reset the clock and allow the member for Durack to ask her question in silence.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians. Does the minister agree with the following statement from a member of the government's Voice Referendum Working Group:

The voice will be able to speak to all parts of the government, including the cabinet, ministers, public servants, and independent statutory offices and agencies—such as the Reserve Bank … the parliament won't be able to stop the voice making those representations. It can't shut the voice up.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Referendum Working Group that the member refers to is a group of Indigenous people both from the Torres Strait and from mainland Australia. They are eminent leaders. It includes Ken Wyatt, the previous Minister for Indigenous Affairs in the last government. It includes people like Noel Pearson. It includes people like Megan Davis. It includes people like Pat Turner. These are serious people, and they have guided the government on the way in which we have conducted ourselves in relation to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice for the parliament. There is also an engagement group and a legal expert group.

We have released a set of design principles that clearly answer the question that you have asked. The design principles are about how the Voice will be made up, how it will be chosen and, most importantly, what its role will be. It will be a body that will provide independent advice to the parliament and the executive on issues that affect First Nations people—things like health, things like housing, things like education. They are the issues that are reported on every year in the Closing the Gap report. That is what the voice will contain itself to. It will not have a veto power and it will not have a funding mechanism. It will not deal with things like parking tickets. It will not involve itself in Anzac Day, as scaremongers have said.

This is a voice that is about improving the practical outcomes for First Nations people, and it is absolutely about recognising the extraordinary history that everyone in this chamber shares, of 65,000 years of story and culture. The Voice will enhance democracy in this country and it will enhance the way in which this parliament operates.